I hate these kinds of posts. It's all useless to talk about unless you talk about <i>what</i> you're trying to build. Not everything that runs in a browser is cut from the same cloth. My job would be miserable without a UI framework, it's a trade-off I've consciously made. I've lived through PHP and Ruby and jQuery/Backbone/Knockout/Closure and my current stack (React + TypeScript) is the only thing that makes my job actually enjoyable. The most important skill is to be able to identify when and where building an SPA is a good idea (hint: it's not your blog or your company's home page). If you really do need an SPA, great, pick a UI framework and a few preprocessors/transpilers and get hacking. If not, also great, just use server-side templates and jQuery. Whatever way you go just remember to leave the zealotry at home.